Student's hygiene?

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I know that there is a thread somewhere but I need help. I have a student who is in 2nd grade and his hygiene is very poor. On a normal day is very unkempt, has a slight smell of BO, and never has underwear and socks on. Last year it was an issue too. He has a sister who is a year older and doesn't have a problem with hygiene. Teacher wanted to talk to me about the issue because the student is basically being excluded by other students due to the odor. How do I go about this? What is a good plan of action? I know I have to talk to the parents but should I also include the social worker too?

Specializes in school nurse.

Seriously, this can be a very awkward problem, and end up giving the kid a rep that follows them for years. What I've done in the past is worked individually with the student on a "project" called the 4H- short for "Healthy Hygiene Habit Handbook". It's done on PowerPoint, with each page covering a hygiene practice. I come up with the text in conjunction with the student then we search for and add some appropriate clip art to the slide, e.g. a person washing their hair, pictures of deodorant, etc. Oh, having a title page with the student listed as an author is very important.

The student keeps a copy of each page/slide as we create it, and is assigned "homework" which is essentially practicing the action that we wrote about on the slide. The practices are cumulative, so by the time the handbook is done, you've covering everything from clean clothes to bathing, to oral care. It's collaborative, and the child gets a sense of accomplishment from creating a "book."

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..
Seriously, this can be a very awkward problem, and end up giving the kid a rep that follows them for years. What I've done in the past is worked individually with the student on a "project" called the 4H- short for "Healthy Hygiene Habit Handbook". It's done on PowerPoint, with each page covering a hygiene practice. I come up with the text in conjunction with the student then we search for and add some appropriate clip art to the slide, e.g. a person washing their hair, pictures of deodorant, etc. Oh, having a title page with the student listed as an author is very important.

The student keeps a copy of each page/slide as we create it, and is assigned "homework" which is essentially practicing the action that we wrote about on the slide. The practices are cumulative, so by the time the handbook is done, you've covering everything from clean clothes to bathing, to oral care. It's collaborative, and the child gets a sense of accomplishment from creating a "book."

This is a great idea!

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

The last thing I would want is for a child to feel excluded by other kids at school, or anywhere for that matter. The point I want to make is, in situations like this, the other kids may not have an objection to this child at all. So my recommendation, before you "do anything" is to witness the interaction for yourself. Yes, I speak from experience. Just make sure the information you are provided isn't an embellishment of reality by the staff member who is offended and/or frustrated.

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Specializes in School nursing.
The last thing I would want is for a child to feel excluded by other kids at school, or anywhere for that matter. The point I want to make is, in situations like this, the other kids may not have an objection to this child at all. So my recommendation, before you "do anything" is to witness the interaction for yourself. Yes, I speak from experience. Just make sure the information you are provided isn't an embellishment of reality by the staff member who is offended and/or frustrated.

THIS. I have seen some smelly little kiddos and the other kids do not care about that smell at all.

It is the older kids that I've seen always care and always notice. I've been dealing with that with a HS kid - lack of laundry and funds is the issue there, so been working on helping on that end with my principal. (I started by talking privately with the student and school counselor the student seeing regularly and trusts on that end there.)

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The last thing I would want is for a child to feel excluded by other kids at school, or anywhere for that matter. The point I want to make is, in situations like this, the other kids may not have an objection to this child at all. So my recommendation, before you "do anything" is to witness the interaction for yourself. Yes, I speak from experience. Just make sure the information you are provided isn't an embellishment of reality by the staff member who is offended and/or frustrated.

Yes, what oldDude said. I have had this same situation with a teacher. I went to see the "shunning and abandonment by his friends" and IT WAS NOT THE CASE AT ALL. He was doing great and had wonderful social interactions. This was confirmed when talking with teacher aides. The teacher was building up quite the horrible situation that simply wasn't reality, to achieve her goal. I did follow up with the student to see if B.O. continued to be a problem, but it simply stopped being an issue after the weeks end. I sent out a few flyers about hygiene. I know this might not be the outcome for more severe situations, but had I not looked into this "student exclusion and abandonment", I could have opened a can of worms that didn't need to happen.

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Specializes in School Nurse. Having conversations with littles..
Pediatric Plumber's Crack, obviously...

Sounds like a new School Nursing Diagnosis that we need to adopt.

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Specializes in School Nurse. Having conversations with littles..

Last week. A middle school teacher called me to ask if I would talk to a boy about a terrible odor that she was noticing on him. She even dramatically explained to me how it almost made her and another student who was near him vomit. I asked her if she had addressed it with the parent since she has the first hand knowledge? Did she need to see if mom could bring some clean clothes? She asked if it could be a drug related odor? I told her the only drug related odor that I am aware of is cat pee/meth lab. Other than that, my nurse nose doesn't know any other drug related odors. She said it didn't smell like cat pee. She wouldn't let it go. So, she asked if she could send the student to the office for me to help him make a copy. He came up. I helped him make a copy, I even leaned in a little closer than usual and kept him visiting with me a little bit. I didn't smell anything and neither did the Principal. I called to teacher to let her know that before the little feller got back to class. I didn't hear anything else about it.

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I had a good experience with a smelly little one. The teacher asked me, in private, if she could send a student down to pick up bandaids and if, while he was there I could maybe sniff him to see if he was as stinky as she thought he was. She was pregnant at the time and very sensitive to smells, so she didn't want to make something out of nothing. No one in the class had made any comments. This kid was already having trouble adjusting-switched schools during the summer and we were his 2nd one this year, so she wanted to nip this before it became an issue. She waited 4 days to even mention it to me.

Kid came down and left a trail of odor! I called mom and was very casual about it "hey, little dude came down and I noticed that he was a bit stinky. His teacher has noticed it as well and we wanted to touch base with you before it became a problem with classmates. Not sure if this could be part of it, but I've noticed a lot of kids won't wear socks and that leads to bacteria growth, which leads to smelly feet. So, maybe check that?" Mom was great about it and we've not had an issue since. Mom did update me and told me that he was stashing his socks in his backpack and wearing his sneakers without them. She threw away the offending shoes too.

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^ Nicely done by all 3 adults involved!

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Specializes in kids.
I had a good experience with a smelly little one. The teacher asked me, in private, if she could send a student down to pick up bandaids and if, while he was there I could maybe sniff him to see if he was as stinky as she thought he was. She was pregnant at the time and very sensitive to smells, so she didn't want to make something out of nothing. No one in the class had made any comments. This kid was already having trouble adjusting-switched schools during the summer and we were his 2nd one this year, so she wanted to nip this before it became an issue. She waited 4 days to even mention it to me.

Kid came down and left a trail of odor! I called mom and was very casual about it "hey, little dude came down and I noticed that he was a bit stinky. His teacher has noticed it as well and we wanted to touch base with you before it became a problem with classmates. Not sure if this could be part of it, but I've noticed a lot of kids won't wear socks and that leads to bacteria growth, which leads to smelly feet. So, maybe check that?" Mom was great about it and we've not had an issue since. Mom did update me and told me that he was stashing his socks in his backpack and wearing his sneakers without them. She threw away the offending shoes too.

Oh yes, the dreaded smelly sneakers!!

We used to leave my sons outside at night in hopes a feral animal would steal them!!!

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Specializes in School Nurse.
Oh yes, the dreaded smelly sneakers!!

We used to leave my sons outside at night in hopes a feral animal would steal them!!!

Or a rogue hamster :)

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Specializes in kids.
Or a rogue hamster :)

^^^^ For The WIN!!! ^^^^

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